I’ve been podcasting since September 2018. While I don’t have the longest tenure, I do believe I have some helpful tips for budding or even current podcasters. Fortunately for us all, there are tons of resources online and in the podcasting space dedicated to podcasting.
Below are the bullet points of my Foundational 5 things to help folks start a podcast.
1. Determine your “Why”
- My examples from when I started my original ‘Between the Slides’ podcast:
- The mission for starting podcasting:
- To help trainees or instructors in the Incident Command System and Incident Management Team spaces avoid pitfalls I hit head-on and to translate book knowledge into practical application
- My Why:
- To continue to help educate Public Safety and Public Health professionals on the pitfalls of continuing the “by the book” practices and how the lack of collaboration and joint planning will get people killed OR how collaborative planning and coordination can save lives.
- Considerations for the budding podcaster:
- Why do you want to talk to other people?
- Why do you want to talk about your given topic?
- Why should people listen to you talk about your given topic?
- Why do you want to take the extra time out of your life to create a podcast?
- The mission for starting podcasting:
2. Determine the podcast’s objectives
- My overarching podcasting objective:
- To provide the listener with insight from my 25+ years of military, public and private sector experience and to share the stories of PEOPLE whose PROCESS and lessons learned can help us all make PROGRESS
- Considerations for the budding podcaster:
- What is the objective of your proposed podcast?
- What will the objectives be for each episode?
- Will the show focus change from week to week?
- Examples:
- “To bring the listener on a journey through…something”
- “To expand the listener’s knowledge of….topic…”
- “To provide short, #/time..summaries of…”
3. Organize the show
- How I roll:
- I mostly do solo shows where I provide my $.02 on incident command, all-hazards incident management, public health, and project management-focused topics with some other things I enjoy like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, exercise, etc.
- Considerations for the listener:
- Will you go solo?
- Will you have a co-host?
- Is there someone you want to go down the podcasting journey with?
- Are you from the same field?
- Do you have different viewpoints you can leverage for the show?
- One great example is The Hill’s (@HillTVLive) ‘Rising with Krystal and Saagar’ which is hosted by a Democrat (@krystalmball) and a Republican (@esaagar)
- Will you have guests on the show?
- To get guests, just ask people you want to interview.
- If they say no then keep going down the list.
- Start with your close circle of family and friends.
- Expand your horizons to @reddit and @facebook groups and @quora as well.
- To get guests, just ask people you want to interview.
4. Gather your podcasting resources
- My first resources were @youtube and @google to figure out where to start in podcasting
- Fortunately, there are TONS of videos and write-ups (like this one) to help you out
- Hardware:
- Get a microphone
- Get a foam cover for it or pop-filter
- Have a laptop, desktop, or Mac to record and edit on
- Software
- Recording
- There are lots of software options out there, but I use @audacity and it’s great…and free
- If you have a Mac, Garage Band is another popular option
- There are lots of software options out there, but I use @audacity and it’s great…and free
- Remote Interviews
- Thanks to @tferriss who provided this great overview of his podcast setup I was led to combine Skype with eCamm Call Recorder and they work well together
- Other popular platforms I’ve learned about include Zoom, Zencaster, and Squadcast
- Music
- We can’t just use our favorite songs in our podcasts because they are copywritten, so we need “royalty-free” sounds
- I got my intro and outro music from Pond 5 (@pond5) and the site works great to preview music and filter by length, cost, and more
- Another resource is YouTube’s Audio Library.
- We can’t just use our favorite songs in our podcasts because they are copywritten, so we need “royalty-free” sounds
- Recording
5. Develop your communication strategy
- How do you get your episodes out into the world?
- You need to find a host. I use Blubrry (@blubrry) and it is great. Easy to use, great statistics, and quick support response.
- Other services I’m aware of include Anchor, Buzzsprout, Podbean, and Libsyn
- How do you advertise?
- The ‘People, Process, Progress’ podcast is shared on the usual socials like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and I suggest the same for the budding podcaster.
- I also recommend creating your own website.
- Consolidate your links
- I learned great lessons from Craig Rowe, host of the ‘People with a Passion’ (@peoplewithpassion) podcast and Youtube show about the Linktree tool that creates one link you can share to then connect your audience to various podcast platforms and with you on social media (see my ‘Connect and subscribe..’ portion at the bottom of the page.
- Book Remote Guests
- Linking up with Todd Cochrane (@geeknews), CEO of Blubrry, he used the great tool Calendly for me to set up a 15-minute intro call and then an appointment for our actual podcast episode recording based on when he set his availability in the application.
More resources
- The Podcast Host – https://www.thepodcasthost.com/planning/how-to-start-a-podcast/
- Forbes.com – https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/how-to-start-a-podcast/
I hope these Foundational 5 things were helpful if you are looking to get into podcasting or are already in the space and looking for a few different tips like I always am. Thank you for reading, sharing, and listening to the podcast.
- Have a plan
- Stay informed
- Get involved
Kevin Pannell, PMP | Founder of KPannell Productions, LLC | Creator & Host of the KEV Talks Podcast | Principal on the @Pannell5Fit and KEV Talks YouTube Channels
- Submit to be a guest here
FB / KEV Talks / You-Jitsu / IG / KEV YouTube / Twitter / Pannell5Fit YouTube
- Have a plan
- Stay informed
- Get involved
Kevin Pannell, PMP | Founder of KPannell Productions, LLC | Creator & Host of the KEV Talks Podcast | Principal on the @Pannell5Fit and KEV Talks YouTube Channels
- Submit to be a guest here
FB / KEV Talks / You-Jitsu / IG / KEV YouTube / Twitter / Pannell5Fit YouTube
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